Record industry forces file-hosting service DBR.ee offline

While stream-ripping may still be the music industry’s top piracy gripe, that won’t stop the record industry from going after other online platforms that facilitate the distribution of unlicensed music.

And to that end various record industry trade groups have successfully forced offline a file-hosting service called DBR.ee, which stored plenty of unlicensed tracks, including pre-release material.

Initially it wasn’t clear why the DBR.ee website had gone down,
but the domain name now forwards to a joint message from the Recording
Industry Association Of America, Music Canada and the globally-focused
International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry.

That message reads: “This site has been shut down following
legal action for copyright infringement. Making available copyright
protected music on the internet without authorisation from the copyright
holder is illegal. Wilful, commercial scale copyright infringement
could lead to criminal conviction. Illegal music services exploit the
work of artists and pay nothing to those creating and investing in
music”.

We knew that DBR.ee was on the US record industry’s target list already, because it was among the sites mentioned in a subpoena secured by the RIAA
earlier this month. That court order requested that internet services
company Cloudflare provide the American labels group with contact
information for a number of its clients, including DBR.ee.

It is thought that the person behind that particular file-hosting platform was based in Canada, hence why other record industry trade groups got involved. A spokesperson for the IFPI told Torrentfreak: “DBR.ee was responsible for large scale copyright infringement of music content. On behalf of our member record companies, IFPI, RIAA and Music Canada identified and contacted the site operator who has now agreed to shut down the site completely and not to infringe sound recording rights in the future”.

Sites like DBR.ee are usually linked to by online forums where
users share information about illegal sources of music and movie
content. Similar file-storage set-ups – and the forums that link to them
– are also likely on the RIAA’s current anti-piracy target list. Indeed
similar sites were listed in that aforementioned Cloudflare subpoena,
as well as other court orders secured by the trade body, some of which
have recently gone offline.